The Down-to-Earth Sky:
An Introduction to
Morin's Method of Determination

by Penny Seator

This essay is a slightly modified version of an article that appeared
in the Mercury Direct section of the April-May 2007 issue of
The Mountain Astrologer.

The character and physical make-up are actually brought to
completion by the disposition of the sky which at a suitable time brings the
child forth from the womb in accordance with its destiny. And - as it were - a
seal is imprinted on the native which is a representation of the nature,
condition, location, and particular determinations of the celestial bodies.

- Astrologia Gallica, Book 21

Jean-Baptiste Morin de Villefranche,
17th-century French astrologer, physician, and mathematician, wrote a 26-book
treatise on astrology and natural philosophy that sets out a systematic and
practical astrological approach.1 The treatise, written in Latin, was
published posthumously in Paris in 1661 under the title Astrologia Gallica. Morin intended in the work to cull a reasoned
and elegant system of horoscope interpretation from what he saw as a
compromised Western astrological history.

Morin's method of determination,
which is the foundation of his system, relies on astrological houses to show
how influences2 enter individual lives. The method highlights the
Ascendant as the basis of down-to-earth astrology.

Morin demonstrates that a planet and
the sign it occupies have general (or universal) significations that do not
reveal the planet's particular significations in a horoscope. He identifies the
misuse of planets' universal significations as an error that compromises
astrology. This essay tracks Morin as he considers the use and misuse of
universal significators, and as he defines planetary nature, celestial state,and terrestrial state. It
follows him as he systematically combines these factors by means of
analogy to specify a planet's
significations in a horoscope. In Morin's system, a planet's nature and
celestial state - its placement in the Sky - show its influence; houses,
particularly the Ascendant, represent the native, the receiver of influences
who determines the planet'sparticular
effects. One section of this essay glances at the Ascendant through the lens of
Morin's method; another section notes some of the method's implications for
understanding human action. The essay demonstrates the basics of Morin's system
using the natal horoscope of Sarah Vaughan, and concludes with recognition of
Morin's gift to astrologers.

Misuse of Universal Significators

Morin demonstrates that astrologers
have misused the universal significations of planets and signs. A
universal significator refers to all members
of a class or category, without distinction among them. A planet is a universal
significator of those sublunary things that are analogous to its categorical
nature.3 In other words, a planet signifies by its nature a whole
class
of things with which it has an analogy4 - the things the planet is
said to rule. Each thing in the category a planet rules is a potential referent
of the planet in a horoscope; it is a thing the planet universally signifies.5

Morin says astrologers have relied
on planets to show, by nature alone, which of their analogical significations
operate in a horoscope. A universal significator, however, does not distinguish
among members of the category it rules; a planet by its nature signifies,
without distinction, all its categorical meanings. To make the point, Morin
quotes a question that the 16th-century astrologer Girolamo Cardano posed:

' Cardanus ' states that Ptolemy introduced a great deal of
confusion when he assigned several meanings to one significator, and made the
Moon, for example, the significator of the body, the morals, the health, the
wife, mother, daughters, maid-servants and sisters. Says Cardanus: 'What then
must be the condition of the Moon in the horoscope of one whose wife had died
in childbirth but himself lived a long life, who had many healthy daughters but
also maid-servants who ran away, who had a sound body but a mother who died
young, and who himself showed a poor moral character?"6

Morin imagines others may say that
sign occupation and aspects condition a planet's significations and thereby
specify the planet's meaning in a horoscope. Morin agrees that what he calls
(in translation) a planet's celestial
state qualifies the
planet's meaning in a horoscope. Yet, although celestial state qualifies and,
therefore, narrows, it does not particularize:

Ptolemy, Cardanus, and others were also in error when they claimed
that in every diurnal horoscope judgment concerning the father of the native is
to be made from the celestial state of the Sun ... [T]hey did not see that this
is absurd, because if the Sun were in Leo and, for example, conjunct or trine
Jupiter or Venus no child would be born anywhere on earth during the course of
that day whose father would not be fortunate and long-lived ...
And of course, as
this aspect would remain in effect for several days it is clearly foolish to
suppose that during this period every child born would have the same kind of
father ... 7

Celestial state, which refers to all significant elements
of a planet's placement8
in the Sky, includes (1) a planet's sign occupation, particularly whether it is
in domicile, exaltation, triplicity, exile (detriment),9 fall, or is
peregrine; (2) the nature and celestial state of the planet's dispositor and the
planet's aspectual relationship, if any, with its dispositor; (3) aspects from
other planets considered by nature and celestial state, and as delivered in a
particular aspect form; and (4) various other factors such as planetary motion
(direct or retrograde, rapid or slow), whether the planet is oriental of the Sun
or occidental of the Moon, and so on.

Skeptics argue that astrologers make
statements that are general and, therefore, broadly apply to many people. Morin
would say that astrologers' statements reliably apply to a particular person
only if we make right use of astrological determinations. Yet, as Morin notes,
sometimes interpretations based only on planetary nature and celestial state
seem to work. In some horoscopes, the Sun does
signify honors; sometimes the Moon is
a significator of moral constitution. As a result, Morin says, astrologers have
come to misuse universal significators to the compromise of astrology.

Terrestrial State

In Morin's method, astrological houses limitand direct -
that is, determine - the universalmeanings
of planets and signs to particularize and concretize their meanings in a
horoscope. Morin sets out his method of determination in Astrologia Gallica's Book 21.

Determine
derives from the Latin terminare ("to set bounds to") and can be defined as: "to limit;
(logic)to limit by adding differences, to limit in scope; to give a
terminus or aim to, to give tendency or direction to, to decide the course of,
to impel to; to give a direction or definite bias to."10

Morin shows that the houses of a
horoscope determine and soparticularize astrological effects. He explains
that planets transmit influences that houses receive
and determine to earthly realizations: Astrological houses limit and
direct significations
inherent as potentials in a planet's nature and celestial state to shape the
planet's influence in a life. Morin (in translation) refers to a planet's
placement within the houses as its terrestrial
state or local determination.

In descending order of influential
strength, a planet's terrestrial state is its (1) location:the house in
which it sits; (2) rulership: the
houses it rules (which answers the question: from where does this planet
come?), the house location of its dispositor (which answers: to where does this
planet go?), and the house location of planets it disposes (which fleshes out
the answer to: from where does this planet come?); (3) aspects and (more weakly) antiscia:
the planet's relationship by aspect or antiscion with planets located in houses,
and with house rulers and house cusps; and (4) reflection:11 the planet's influence onthe house opposite the one in which it
sits. These determinations are reducible to the two basic forms of local
determination:location and rulership.

Robert Corre uses the image of an
artesian spring to explain the means by which houses - which represent Earth
and earthlings - determine the Sky. An artesian spring bubbles up from beneath
the ground in a manner determined by its nature, quantity, and quality, and by
forces that propel it. Once it rises to the surface, the topography of the land
onto which the water courses directs and conditions its flow. Without knowledge
of the land onto which the water emerges, we cannot know where the water will
flow when it reaches the surface, or whether it will become stream, fountain,
lake, or flood.

Morin shows that, to transliterate the Sky into earthly
meanings,we rely on the houses to represent life on Earth. Houses relate tothings
and events that people care about. We care about body, home, partner, children,
work and career, friends, food, money, health, illness, death, and so on. Morin
gives us a scheme that enables us to translate the Sky's symbols into human
terms.

Nature, State, Determinations, and Analogies

Morin's method shows its power when
he uses analogies to combine a
planet's nature with its celestial state and local determinations. Morin
demonstrates how, with systematic combination of these factors, the astrologer
can assess the strength, quality, and direction of each planet's
influence. To form an image of a living person from the horoscope's symbols,
the astrologer systematically analyzes combinations of houses, signs, and
planets whose effects are actualized and made visible through analogy. Morin's
system guides the astrologer to see analogies as they selectively light up
networks of influence and determination that planets and signs string among
themselves and direct from house to house.

When a planet's nature, celestial
state, and local determinations are unified by shared analogy, the planet
realizes signified house affairs. For example, if Jupiter is well-placed in
Sagittarius in the 10th house and receives a trine from the Sun in Leo in the
5th, the shared analogies to honors, creativity, and visibility signify a
publicly honored and creative destiny. Each planet, however, exists in a
community of planets in which each has a distinct nature, particular state and
determinations, and powerful influence. It is usually necessary to evaluate and
synthesize multiple planetary placements that affect particular house affairs
to understand their relative and combined influences. Combinations of planetary
placements that are confluent (analogous) and strong (or, in the absence of
beneficial realization, weak) are needed to predict readily apparent results.

Morin's discussions of planetary
nature, strength, and celestial state, are multifaceted. In basic terms, a
planet's nature shows whether the
planet will realize house affairs. A planet's influential nature12 is
known through its categorical analogies; these analogies are the source of the
benefic or malefic13 nature of a planet's influence. A
planet's strength14 - a measure of the quantity of its
influence - calibrates how much the
planet will realize in the house affairs that it influences. Its quality,
seen in celestial state, indicates whether realization of house affairs
will be refined, satisfying, and stable, and whether realization will be
achieved through ethical, well-timed, and harmonious means.

Factors of planetary strength include location or
rulership in angular houses (especially the 1st or 10th), occupation of
cardinal signs, disposition
of many or key planets, disposition by a strongly placed planet (especially
with an aspect from the dispositor), participation in exact aspects or in
aspects with many planets, aspects to the Ascendant or Midheaven or their
rulers, aspects to the Sun or Moon or their dispositors, and aspects to other
key planets. The other end of the spectrum of strength includes location or
rulership in cadent houses, occupation of dual (mutable) signs, disposition of
no planets or few relatively weakly placed planets, a dispositor whose
placement is relatively weak, and participation in few or wide aspects,
especially
to relatively weakly placed planets. The lights (the Sun and Moon) strongly
placed, especially in aspect to the Ascendant and to each other, or to the
Midheaven, also contribute mightily to strength.

Primary factors of a planet's good celestial state, which favorably
condition its nature and show the quality
of its influence, include occupation of a sign with which the planet's
nature is compatible (where it is in honor by domicile, exaltation, or
triplicity),15 favorable aspects from benefic planets, absence of
unfavorable aspects from malefic planets, and a dispositor well conditioned by
celestial state.

Morin shows that a planet in a
horoscope first identifies itself by house location
and nature. A natural benefic located
in a fortunate house realizes house affairs through the benefic analogies that
planet and house share. A natural malefic located in an unfortunate house (primarily
the 6th, 8th, or 12th) tends to give effect to unfortunate shared analogies.
The confluent effect is further heightened when the planets celestial state
also bears an analogy to its nature and determinations. Contrary analogies or
the absence of analogies limit or deny realization of house affairs. A natural
benefic located in an unfortunate house protects the native from misfortunes of
the house, and tends to bring out the house's potentially beneficial
significations. A natural malefic - primarily Saturn, Mars, and (post-Morin)
the modern planets - located in a fortunate house tends to obstruct or disrupt
realization.

When Morin looks at determination by
house location, he considers the influence on house affairs of one planet
located in a house. He also considers multiple planets located in a house and
measures their relative and combined influence on the house. He weighs each
planet's influence based on considerations of its rulership in the house, its analogy
with affairs of the house, its orb of conjunction to the house cusp, its relationship
to its dispositor and to the house ruler, and its place in the sequence of
planets through the house, among other factors.

After Morin considers a planet's
nature, location, and celestial state, he factors in remaining elements of terrestrial state.
Rulership is the second most effective form of local determination.
Morin looks at the effect of a house ruler located in a house it rules, and he
considers the effect of a house ruler located in another house. He shows that
planets related by disposition shape each other's local determinations, and demonstrates
how a planet and its dispositor combine the effects of one house with those of
another. House rulers include rulers primarily by domicile, importantly by
exaltation, and weakly by triplicity. Planets that rule a sign placed in a
house but do not rule the house cusp also act as rulers of the house.

The third form of local determination
is given to a planet by aspect. A
planet that sends an aspect to a house cusp, house ruler, or a planet located in
a house is thereby given a determination to the affairs of the house it
influences. An aspect between planets acting in accord with their local
determinations modifies the terrestrial state of each mutually aspecting
planet. Planets combine the affairs of one house with those of another by their
mutual aspects.

Morin considers the panoply of
combinations of natural benefics and malefics in good, intermediate, and poor
celestial state given determinations to fortunate and unfortunate houses. For
example, a natural benefic in good celestial state that is given a
determination to a fortunate house to which it bears an analogy generates refined,
satisfying, enduring, and well achieved realization of house affairs. A natural
benefic in poor celestial state realizes affairs of a fortunate house; the realization,
however, may be of compromised quality, may prove unsatisfying or unstable, or may
be accomplished by questionable means. The poor celestial state of a natural
malefic renders its influence more difficult to manage. A natural malefic's
good celestial state lends it benefic effect, and gives it capacity to realize
fortunate affairs or avert some unfortunate realizations - at least in the
fortunate houses. Yet, whatever its state, a planet always influences by its
nature:

[A] malefic even in good state always grants things attended by
imperfections, or through evil methods or in difficult ways, or with some
accompanying misfortune, because of the malefic nature of the planet through
which it is more prone to evil than to good. Whence it can be said that
malefics in good celestial state in the fortunate houses are like a dissonance
in music that has been resolved to produce a consonance.16

The Ascendant

The rising point, or Ascendant, is
the originating place where the band of Sky in which the planets wander touches
the Earth. In most methods of house division, the Ascendant is the first point
the system defines and, with the Midheaven, the point from which houses are
constructed. The Sky enters the ken of earthlings at the Ascendant. We turn
east (from Sanskrit ushas, "dawn") at sunrise to know
and enter the coming day; we turn to the Ascendant to know a person. The
Ascendant describes the person and the person's orientation (from Latin orienter, "to place facing
east") to life.

Consistent with tradition, Morin
refers to the 1st house as the House of Life. Robert Corre teaches, as Zoltan
Mason taught, that the Ascendant is 80% of the horoscope: the sign on the
ascendant and planets connected to the Ascendant contribute to the formation of
personality.17 Mason placed his finger on the Ascendant as he
interpreted a horoscope to remind himself to keep track of the rising point.

The horoscope shows how the native
receives and determines influences. Factors that do not appear in the horoscope
are also determinative. Those factors are, first, whether the horoscope is
correctly cast; and second, whether it is the horoscope of a human birth -
circumstances the horoscope does not show. Nor does the horoscope show the
person's social, cultural, and religious background, gender, or (without
calculation from planetary positions) age. As Morin explains and Corre emphasizes,
the horoscope shows only half the picture; the other half is the context in
which the horoscope operates.

Action and Determination

In Ptolemaic cosmology,18
the primum caelum, which translates
to "first heaven," is the first moveable
sphere and the sphere of fixed stars. The primum
caelum, as the first cause in Nature, imparts motion to lower celestial
spheres that carry planets in their orbits. In the traditional view that
informed Morin's thought and practice, the Unmoved Mover inspires love -
experienced as breath - that animates the cosmos and generates life as it also
draws the creature home to its source.

In Morin's model, at creation the
Author of Nature determined the nature and active power of the primum caelum, and determined the
planets' essential natures and active powers; the planets determined the
zodiacal signs. As a result of planets' original determination of signs, planets
and signs work as (cooperative or uncooperative) partners through relationships
found in rulership, sign occupation, and analogies. Since creation, planets and
signs mutually determine each other. Planets, acting as transmitters of signs'
influences and as senders of their own natural and conditioned influences, are
first causes that actively influence houses; houses - which represent Earth and
so represent us - receive and determine influences of planets and signs. When
humans act as a result of influences we receive, we become, Morin says,
"particular causes of [our] own effects."19

This model of the relationship of
cause, creative determination, and effect is a schema of cosmic order. It shows
how human beings become creative actors: In Morin's traditional view of cosmos,
we are secondary causes who act to determine the particular effects of
celestial first causes. With Morin's method, we can assess influences,
circumstances, and potentials in accord with cosmology to focus the crucial
question about human action that arises again and again: What is the best I can
do in thesecircumstances under these influences at this time?

An Application of Morin's Method

Sarah Vaughan was a great jazz
singer whose highly successful career began when she was 18 years old and
spanned almost 50 years. Vaughan's phenomenally strong, flexible, and captivating
voice had an extraordinarily wide range. One of the early influential bebop
musicians, she used her voice as a horn. Vaughan crossed boundaries that
redefined musical genres and profoundly influenced jazz singing. She performed
successfully in jazz and pop genres and sang with symphony orchestras. She was
largely self-taught and perfected her art by working with other great
musicians. She had a wonderful musical imagination; she created and executed to
perfection intricate harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic changes. She was a master
and innovator of scat singing, which is the art of improvising in sounds
and syllables without words. Vaughan's voice retained its beauty, expressive power,
and flexibility throughout her long career; as she aged, her lows became richer,
and her musicianship matured to become increasingly masterful.

In view of the wealth of information
that a horoscope encodes, the challenge is to glean what is salient for a given
purpose. The purpose here is to demonstrate some basic principles of Morin's
method. The focus here will be on the most publicly outstanding characteristics
of Vaughan's life - her voice and musical artistry - with an occasional glance
at other matters. The 2nd is the house of the throat and mouth and, thus, of
voice and nourishment; it is the house of money and material resources. Musical
artistry is a 5th-house matter.20

The Ascendant: Life and Direction

In order to understand the effect of
any planetary placement, it is necessary to understand who is subject to the influence. Scorpio rises in Vaughan's
horoscope. As the eighth sign, Scorpio connects Vaughan with 8th-house affairs.
The house locations of Ascendant rulers Mars and Pluto confirm the connection
and direct Vaughan to the 2nd/8th axis: Ascendant ruler Pluto is located in the
8th house in Cancer; it throws a tight opposition to Ascendant ruler Mars,
which sits exalted in Capricorn in the 2nd. The Moon in Capricorn sits in exile
in the 2nd house, where it disposes and tightly aspects Pluto within an orb of
20 minutes. In Morin's system, each house has accidental significations that
mirror the essential significations of the opposite house, and a dispositor of
a house ruler can become as effective in house affairs as the ruler itself.
Thus, Pluto's 8th-house location and its disposition to the 2nd further
intertwine Vaughan's life with 2nd-house matters.

These major arteries powerfully
connect the Ascendant with the 2nd/8th axis, with a decided tilt toward the
2nd; they vitally direct Vaughan's life toward 2nd-house affairs. This
confluence of factors directed toward the 2nd is striking. It becomes more
striking still. Three planets, including the 2nd-house ruler, are located in
the 2nd; what's more, every planet in thehoroscope pours its influence into the 2nd, and all are
tied to the Ascendant or Ascendant rulers.

Uranus, Neptune, and Venus are the
planets that most closely aspect the Ascendant. All three planets are strongly
connected to the 2nd house by disposition or final disposition21 and
by aspect. Jupiter, which rules in the 1st (representing Vaughan) and in the
4th (representing Vaughan's foundation and ancestry), is the 2nd-house ruler;
it is placed powerfully in domicile closely conjunct the 2nd cusp, and disposes
Ascendant ruler Pluto by exaltation to the 2nd. The Sun and Mercury, the
10th-house rulers in Aries in the 5th house, aspect into the 2nd and are
disposed there by Ascendant ruler Mars; they aspect both Ascendant rulers.
Saturn, which rules in the 2nd, sits in the 12th in Scorpio, the ascending
sign, in mutual reception by domicile with the Ascendant ruler, exalted Mars.
This comprehensive and tightly woven pattern signifies Vaughan's integrated
focus on 2nd-house affairs and the affairs of the 2nd/8th axis; it also shows
the remarkable complexity of those affairs. Vaughan, with a Scorpio Ascendant, was
directed to voice, money, others' money, food and drink, sex, trauma, regeneration,
and death.

Uranus in Pisces sits in the 4th, an
angular house that it co-rules; it makes the closest aspect to the Ascendant
and aspects both Ascendant rulers, Mars and Pluto. Uranus is located in the
house of parents, past, foundation, and ancestry in a sign of music. It is
disposed to the 2nd and in a tight square to its powerful dispositor, Jupiter;
it is disposed to the 9th by Neptune, which has honor of elevation in the royal
sign of Leo; Venus, which sits powerfully angular in domicile, sextiles and
disposes Uranus by exaltation. Uranus' final dispositor is the exalted
10th-house ruler, the Sun in Aries, which is located in the 5th house of
performance, music, and creativity. As these placements presage, Vaughan burst
into visibility with song. Her parents were amateur religious and traditional
musicians. Vaughan got her start in music when she sang in the choir and played
organ in church as a child and adolescent; her jazz roots were in innovative
bebop, with its revolutionary harmonies and rhythms. Vaughan's past led her to
unique, visible, and inspired musical performance.

The second-closest aspect to the
Ascendant is Neptune's square from the 9th house. Neptune participates in fierytrines with Jupiter in the 2nd and
with its dispositor, the exalted Sun, conjunct Mercury in the 5th; it closely
squares Venus in domicile on the 7th-house cusp. Neptune is a significator of
longing and divinity in a sign of royalty and performance in a house of
aspiration and divinity; the exalted Sun that disposes Neptune is a significator
of royalty and divinity in the fortunate and musical 5th house. Vaughan sang
ballads of yearning and romance in a beautiful lush voice; laudatory critics
sometimes called her voice "operatic." Vaughan was known as the "Divine
One"; she said her favorite and best among her early recordings was "The Lord's
Prayer." Vaughan's aspirations led her to divine song.

Venus makes the third-closest aspect
to the Ascendant. Venus is one of the two angular planets and is a benefic
powerfully placed in its earthy domicile closely conjunct the 7th-house cusp in
a Scorpio-rising chart. The 7th signifies the public as well as the partner. Venus
sextiles Uranus and disposes it by exaltation. With analogies to throat and
voice in a sign with the same analogies, Venus is disposed by exaltation to the
2nd house and casts aspects into the 2nd to its dispositor, the Moon; it
closely squares Neptune. "Tenderly" was one of Vaughan's signature songs;
another was "Misty." Vaughan sang ballads and innovative jazz; she also made
recordings backed by string orchestras. Venus' placement gave Vaughan's music
divine, sensual beauty and stunning creative originality; her rich and
arrestingly beautiful vocal expression brought her success with a devoted
public.

The Midheaven: Action and Destiny

The
Midheaven in Vaughan's horoscope is very powerfully placed and, in itself, promises
something extraordinary. Vaughan's Midheaven falls into strong, fixed, fiery
Leo. Its ruler is the exalted Sun in Aries, which is disposed to the 2nd by
exalted Mars. The Sun comes from the elevated 9th and 10th houses to the fortunate
5th, where it sits closely conjunct the cusp it rules by exaltation. The Sun
participates with Mercury, which also rules in the 10th, in powerful fire-sign
trines that occur in strongly-placed fortunate houses. All the planets in these
key fiery trines - Jupiter in domicile on the 2nd cusp, the exalted Sun on the
5th cusp where it trines and disposes elevated Neptune in the 9th, and Mercury
conjunct its exaltation dispositor - are given determinations to the 2nd by
location, rulership, dispositorship, and aspect: Vaughan's actions and destiny
are directed to the 2nd house by way of the fortunate 5th and 9th. Both 10th-house
rulers aspect the Ascendant rulers and are disposed by Ascendant ruler Mars.
Vaughan's actions, signified in the 10th and its rulers, are integrated with
her self and her life, shown in the 1st and its rulers. Vaughan was destined
for actions that created brilliant, inspired, visible performance in song.

The Lights

The Sun, as noted above, is very
powerfully placed. Like the Sun, the Moon is placed in a cardinal sign in a
succedent house. The two lights are in close square to each other; both are
strongly configured with the Ascendant rulers. The Sun is exalted and in a
square with its exalted dispositor; the Moon sits in exile with the same exalted
dispositor, Ascendant ruler Mars. Both lights are given determinations to the
2nd, 5th, 9th, and 10th houses; both rule fortunate, elevated houses: The Sun
is the Midheaven ruler, and the Moon is the 9th-house ruler; the Sun also rules
the fortunate 5th by exaltation; the Moon rules by exaltation in the
angular 7th house. The placement of the lights confirms Vaughan's
strength, integration, powerful motivation, and visibility.

Quantity:
Strength

Vaughan's strength is immediately
apparent. The strong placement of the Ascendant and the lights, and the very
strong placement of the Midheaven, even taken without other factors, give the
horoscope enormous strength and promise an unusual life.

The
Ascendant is in Scorpio, a strong, fixed sign. The Ascendant rulers, Midheaven
rulers, both lights and the dispositors of the lights all occupy cardinal
signs, and all are located in succedent houses. Both Ascendant rulers make
favorable aspects to the Ascendant, and many other planets send tight aspects
to the Ascendant or its rulers. The strength of the Ascendant enabled Vaughan
to make effective use of her remarkable gifts under demanding conditions.

In Vaughan's horoscope, many planets,
including the 1st and 10th rulers, are related by tight aspects. All the planets,
except Saturn in mutual reception with its exalted dispositor (Mars), are in
domicile or exaltation, or else they aspect planets that dispose them by
domicile, exaltation, or both. In general, the most important aspect a planet
can receive is from its dispositor; aspects between planets and their
dispositors strengthen, stabilize, and integrate the chart.

The horoscope shows a preponderance
of placements in the active and powerful fire element; no planets occupy air
signs. The poet Rumi's line applies: "The reed is played with fire, not wind."
Vaughan was creatively inspired; she had enormous physical energy and,
as she recognized, was prone to excess. Her first nickname was "Sassy." She
worked and socialized for long hours, and her social life included
overindulgence in food, drink, and other substances; when she was young, she
stretched the limits of her body's great endurance by getting by on very little
sleep. Jupiter's powerfully benefic presence in domicile closely conjunct the
2nd-house cusp gave Vaughan's voice enormous strength and durability. Vaughan's
strength, and the strength of her voice, enabled her to keep on singing
wonderfully, despite demands on her body and compromises to her well-being.

Two benefics, Venus and Jupiter, sit
in domicile on the cusps they rule - Venus angular. Uranus is located in the
angular house it rules and casts tight aspects to the Ascendant and key planets.
Only two planets, Saturn and Neptune, are in cadent houses; although they are
located in cadent houses, both planets partake of strength. Neptune is elevated
and is disposed by the strongly placed Sun. Saturn is in mutual reception by
domicile with exalted Ascendant ruler Mars in a succedent house. Both planets
in mutable signs partake of strength: Jupiter sits in domicile on the cusp of
the succedent 2nd house where Vaughan's life is powerfully directed; Uranus is angular
and receives a tight square from its powerfully placed dispositor, Jupiter. The
two strong mutable sign placements alleviate the horoscope's weight and
single-minded focus, even as they contribute to its intensity.

Quality: Nature
and Celestial State

The progress of planets
through the 2nd house describes Vaughan's voice. Jupiter in domicile on the
2nd cusp has paramount influence on this pivotal house. Three planets of varied
nature and state in the 2nd - benefic Jupiter in domicile, the benefic Moon
in exile, and malefic Mars exalted - and the many influences on the house show
enormous complexity in 2nd-house affairs and great variety in Vaughan's voice.
Vaughan often stated a melody in pure tones with grace (under the influence
of Jupiter's placement); took it through unique changes that incorporated great
leaps, harsh or flat tones, and dissonance (still under Jupiter's placement
and under the exiled Moon's); and brought it to a successful resolution (under
Jupiter and Mars). Vaughan followed a similar progression within phrases; she
even carried the pattern into single held and shaped sounds.Vaughan's vocal
genius was powered by the exalted Sun's brilliance, guided by Jupiter's overarching
influence, "jazzed" by Uranus, sensitized by Neptune, embodied in Venus, rendered
magnetic through Pluto, informed by Mercury's discrimination, and given voice
through Jupiter, the Moon, and Mars. The placement of the exiled Moon, in a
house under the sway of Jupiter, shows Vaughan's often-heard musical humor and
her humor in performance.

Mars (natural significator of
timing) and Saturn (natural significator of time itself) combine by mutual
reception; the Moon (natural significator of the measured sense of time)
combines with them by conjunction and disposition. The placements of these
planets show Vaughan as a master of timing and rhythm in song who was able to
integrate phenomenally diverse patterns of sound, rhythm, and silence.
Vaughan's accompanists - most of whom found working with her exhilarating,
inspiring, and musically revelatory - described how they hung in wait as
Vaughan masterfully calibrated the timing of her next note. Saturn's disposition
of Mars and the Moon pulled timing into a 12th-house realm that seemed to
threaten its loss. Exalted Mars's disposition of the Moon and its disposition
of Saturn into the 2nd, all under the influence of Jupiter, brought Vaughan
flawlessly back to solid ground.

Vaughan was recognized as a great
jazz musician; she also had a parallel career as a financially successful pop
singer. The rulers of her Scorpio Ascendant in Capricorn and Cancer -
security-conscious cardinal signs - tightly configured with an exiled Moon on
the 2nd/8th axis show Vaughan strongly oriented toward money. Factors that
describe her orientation to money coalesce with Venus's determinations
(including Venus's disposition by the exiled Moon in the 2nd) to describe
Vaughan's husbands as interested in her money. Venus is finally disposed by
Saturn in Scorpio in the 12th (because the Moon disposes Venus by exaltation,
and Saturn disposes the Moon by domicile). This placement, combined with
Venus's rulership of the 12th, describes Vaughan's husbands as her secret
enemies, particularly in financial matters. These placements, combined with the
placements of Mars, Pluto, and Uranus (including Uranus's exact sextile to the
Descendant and its tight sextile to Venus), show the husbands were controlling, confining, and prone to
violence. Vaughan was the money-maker in her three failed marriages. She
supported her parents after she became successful, and also supported her
daughter, whom Vaughan and her second husband adopted and whom she and her mother
reared. Saturn in Scorpio disposes the Moon and Mars from the 2nd to the 12th
house of loss and misfortune. Jupiter's powerful placement and analogy with
wealth reveal Vaughan's wealth. These factors and the sequence of planets
through the 2nd house - Jupiter in domicile on the cusp, with the exiled Moon
and exalted Mars following - paint a picture of financial success followed by
loss that is resolved. Vaughan recovered from significant financial losses
related to her first two marriages to enjoy substantial wealth.

Consistent with her Scorpio Ascendant and direction to the 2nd/8th
axis, Vaughan put her singing to financial use. The Moon's exiled state and
placement in configuration with multiple malefics describes the poor quality in
songs and arrangements that Vaughan recorded for commercial reasons. Her first
million record seller, "Broken Hearted Melody," was so musically impoverished
that even Vaughan was unable to enliven or draw out beauty in the song. She
felt silly every time she sang it. On the other hand, Vaughan found and
expressed beauty in songs of varying merit; she applied her genius to any
musical genre she touched and created something unique and beautiful. Later in
her career, Vaughan was able to focus on material of high musical quality that
permitted her to use her innate genius and creativity more consistently than some
of her earlier popular material had allowed. By that time, Vaughan had narrowed
her repertoire to a relatively small number of songs that she performed
repeatedly - although wonderfully and often differently from performance to
performance. The continuing influence of Jupiter placed in domicile on the 2nd
cusp, and the exalted Mars that concludes the series of planets in the house,
show dissonance in Vaughan's compromises resolved to consonance.

Analogies

Vaughan's horoscope directs her
ineluctably to brilliant, visible, innovative musicianship and promises a
powerful, beautiful, and highly expressive voice. The analogies, including
those noted above, are strong. The Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Uranus, Leo, exaltation,
fire, and the 5th, 9th, and 10th houses have analogies with visibility,
brilliance, and creativity. Jupiter, Neptune, Venus, Sagittarius, Pisces, fire,
water, and the 9th, and 12th houses have analogies with divinity and the
creative poetry of sound. The Moon, Pluto, Neptune, water, and the 4th, 8th,
and 12th houses have analogies with mystery, illusion, riveting power, and
affecting depth. The malefic analogies in the horoscope, which become relevant
to the discussion in the section below, are also strong.

Malefics and
Unfortunate Houses

The same horoscope that describes
Sarah Vaughan's strength and her brilliance, expressive genius, visibility, and
success also describes misfortune. Ascendant rulers Mars and Pluto are natural
malefics that are in hard aspect to each other and are given determinations to
the three unfortunate houses; they both cast hard aspects to the two lights. Neither
of the two principal angles - the Ascendant and Midheaven - nor their rulers, and
neither light, receives close harmonious aspects from well-conditioned
benefics. The malefic analogies are apparent and effective. These fundamental
significators of Vaughan and her life, under substantial malefic influence and
with little benefic support, represent a life that included a significant share
of difficulty and pain.

Saturn's placement looms large.
Saturn is the planet of illness, isolation, and silence that, except for the
mutual reception with Mars, sits quite isolated in an otherwise tightly woven
horoscope in the hidden, silent, and isolating 12th house in the silent sign of
Scorpio. Saturn rules the 12th by exaltation; its only close aspect
is a sextile to the Midheaven, the place of action and destiny. The 12th gives
a determination to loss, illness, and hospitalization. Saturn, natural
significator of illness, disposes or finally disposes both Ascendant rulers,
both lights, both 10th-house rulers, and the rulers of the 6th, 8th, and 12th
houses. In fact, Saturn disposes or finally disposes every planet in the
horoscope except Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. Saturn's power as a dispositor,
and its mutual reception by domicile with Mars, repeatedly pulled Vaughan from
exalted performance and intense living into isolation, silence, and loss - and
back again to song. Saturn's placement describes Vaughan's experience of career
limitations and private sorrows in a life that included creative mastery,
public success, and financial wealth, allachieved against great social odds.

Saturn rules the 4th house. The 4th
signifies the end of life; Saturn has an analogy with death and endings. As the
4th ruler in the 12th - with the confluence of other key planets also disposed
to the 12th and connected with the 6th, 8th, and malefics - Saturn shows
hospitalization at the end of life. The 2nd house gives a determination to what
comes out of the mouth - and also what goes in. The malefics rule smoke and
health-destroying chemicals. Placements of malefics and unfortunate houses here
show a chronic, long-silent illness that arises from what is ingested. With
Ascendant ruler Mars, both the 10th-house rulers, and both lights also given
determinations to the 6th, 8th, and 12th houses, Pluto's placement as Ascendant
ruler in the 8th shows that Vaughan's actions were a cause of her death.
Vaughan smoked cigarettes and died at the relatively young age of 66 from lung
cancer.

Uranus, located in the house of the
home and the end of life, is disposed by domicile and exaltation to three
fortunate houses; it aspects into two of those houses. Uranus, given a
determination to death by its aspect to Pluto in the 8th, sextiles 12th ruler
Venus, who also rules the 11th, the house of friends and love received from
friends. These placements signify that Vaughan died at home with support from
friends and family.

Morin's Gift to Astrologers

Morin's view of the misuse of
universal significators casts a clarifying light on astrological practice.
Misplaced reliance on universal significators is one reason that Western astrologers
now shy away from what has come to be called predictive astrology toward a more
amorphous descriptive astrology that focuses primarily on planets, signs, and
aspects. Morin says that astrologers can speak reliably of a particular person
engaged in life by systematic, proportionate, and right use of signs, planets,
and aspects with houses. In Morin's method, factors that combine to shape a
person also delineate a life. With use of Morin's system, the astrologer's view
of cause and effect becomes clearer and more connected with life as we live it;
with these methods, the
astrologer can give practical, helpful, and focused consultations that
understand lived experience and place it in cosmic perspective.

Morin's approach is comprehensive
and systematic. It sits on a strong foundation of basic astrological factors
used in accordance with a method that lives intertwined with cosmology,
meaning, and tradition. Modern Western astrologers have introduced new factors
- for example, asteroids and midpoints - and their associated techniques. These
modern factors can describe details with striking accuracy. If Morin is
correct, such factors should find their proportionate and rightful place in
systematic and comprehensive horoscope interpretation.

Morin's methods show astrology's
symbols as they operate in a horoscope to describe a life. Astrology's symbols
in action reveal cosmic order, or - because cosmos
means harmony and order - reveal cosmos. Modern Western astrologers tend to
reject the tradition that categorizes planets as natural benefics or malefics,
houses as fortunate or unfortunate, and celestial states as states of honor or
dishonor. It is important to recognize value in human experience, including
painful or destructive experience. Yet, it serves human beings who seek
perspective and guidance to see within our lives patterns of mundane happiness
and unhappiness, success and failure, skillful and unskillful actions, and
ethical and unethical means.

Morin shows how to look at a horoscope
through houses that focus the gaze on life. He shows how to see sublunary life
in action under cosmic influences shaped by human determination. In the sacred
art of astrology, we join Earth with Sky to know the divine in human life.

I
am grateful to Robert Corre, a New York astrologer and teacher who was a
long-time student of Zoltan Mason, for his teaching of Morin's system through
the Forum on Astrology. I thank Laura Torbet for her comments on earlier drafts
of this essay and Pat Ranger for e-mail exchanges on Sarah Vaughan's horoscope.
Errors and limitations are mine.

Chart Data and Source

Sarah Vaughan, March 27,
1924; 9:44 p.m. EST; Newark, NJ, USA (40°N44^08^^, 74°W10^22^^); AA: quoted
birth certificate/record; AstroDatabank cites Contemporary Sidereal Horoscopes
and Gauquelin Book of American Charts.For purposes of this example, I have
taken a minute from the 9:45 p.m. birth time given.

References and Notes

1. Teaching and
other information on Morin and his system areavailable through Robert Corre's Web site:
www.forumonastrology.com. The Web site is the portal to Mr. Corre's Internet classes on
Morin's system and gives his schedule of in-person classes and lectures in the
U.S. and abroad.

2. Influence (from the Latin influxus, "emanation from the
stars") is: "The supposed flowing or streaming from the stars or heavens
of an ethereal fluid acting upon ... character and destiny ... and affecting
sublunary things generally." Oxford
English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, CD-ROM, 2002 (hereinafter OED). Influence is used in this essay for the most part without the
duplicative celestial preceding it.

3. Nature is essence expressed in action;
essence (from the Latin esse,
"to be") is what makes a thing what it is. The influence a planet has
by nature is the influence it has by virtue of being itself.

4. Analogy is "correspondence ... of one
thing to another ... resemblance of things with regard to some circumstances or
effects" (OED).

5. A planet's
nature and universal signification is also seen, for example, in the Sun's
solar influence, Saturn's saturnine influence, and Jupiter's jovial influence.

6. J. B. Morin, Astrologia Gallica, Book 21: The Active Determinations of the Celestial
Bodies and the Passive Determinations of the Sublunary World, trans.
Richard S. Baldwin, American Federation of Astrologers, 1974, §1, ch. 3, p. 13
(hereinafter "Book 21"). English translations of several books of Astrologia Gallica are currently
available; James Herschel Holden's translations of other books are in progress
or forthcoming.

7. Book 21, §1,
ch. 3, p. 12.

8. When used
here without qualification, the word placement
comprises all the factors that condition and determine a planet in a
horoscope. These factors include house location, sign occupation, aspects, and
all other elements of celestial and terrestrial state. I've adopted this usage
from a similar definition that Hart deFouw gives in his Jyotisha classes in
order to standardize astrological terminology. It facilitates communication to
distinguish placement from less comprehensive factors that are included within
it, particularly sign occupation and house location.

9. The planetary
state that modern Western astrologers call detriment
Morin (in translation) calls by its traditional name, exile. An exiled planet is strong, not weak. It is, however, ill at
ease in enforced absence far from home in a place incompatible with its nature.
The planet's performance depends largely on the placement of its dispositor,
ruler in the foreign land where the exiled planet finds itself.

10. OED (ellipses omitted).

11. Morin
recognizes a planet's influence on the opposite house, an influence here called
"reflection." This influence gives the weakest form of local determination. I
omit it and antiscia, for the most part, from this introductory discussion.

12. Morin
distinguishes a planet's elemental nature from its influential nature. This
discussion is of influential nature.

13. Natural
benefics have analogies with sublunary things that are humanly desirable and
contribute to a satisfying and ethicallife; natural malefics have
analogies with things that are generally undesirable and tend to undermine the
creation of a satisfying, ethical life.

14. Morin
distinguishes a planet's intrinsic and extrinsic strength. He measures a
planet's intrinsic strength, which is inherent in its nature, by the radius of
its ascribedorb of influence.
Extrinsic strength, which is under discussion here, arises from a planet's
conditioning by state.

15. A peregrine
planet, one that is neither in high honor nor in dishonor, may have a
beneficial influence when disposed by a benefic.

16. Book 21, §2,
ch. 2, p. 45.

17. As Robert
Corre explains in his Forum on Astrology classes, the luminaries (particularly
in relationship to each other and to the Ascendant), the 5th (house of love
given to others), and the 9th (house of philosophy and belief) also contribute
to the formation of personality.

18. In the
cosmology that Morin embraced, the five true planets orbit the Sun; the Sun
(with planets in attendance) and the Moon orbit the Earth. With this cosmology,
Morin sought to account for measurable astronomical phenomena and
simultaneously affirm geocentric church doctrine.

19. Book 21, §1,
ch. 4, p. 16.

20. The 3rd
house also gives a determination to skill and artistry.

21. As the term
is used here, a planet's final dispositor is the dispositor of its dispositor.

Penny Seator is
an astrologer and student of Western astrology and Jyotisha, with particular
interest in the system of Jean-Baptiste Morin. Visit her Web site: www.encirclinglight.com. You can
reach her by telephone at (760) 366-9911 or by e-mail at pseator@encirclinglight.com.

AN OUTLINE OF MORIN'S METHOD OF DETERMINATION

Signs
and Planets:

Are universal
significators: they refer to all members of a category of sublunary
things.

Are determined - limited or
directed - to the affairs of the houses they influence.

Form a reliable basis for
astrological judgment only when combined with particularizing determinations.

Mutually determine each
other and act as (cooperative or uncooperative) partners.

Send their influence,
transmitted through the planets, to Earth in accord with nature, state, and
determinations through the actualizing operation of analogy.

Houses:

Represent Earth and
earthlings, and delineate earthly life.

Receive and determine the
influences of signs and planets.

Enable the astrologer to
make concrete assessments that speak with specificity of life and apply to a
particular person.

Show, especially through
the Ascendant, the native's orientation to life.

Show, especially through
the Ascendant, who receives and determines the influences of planets and signs.

Show, especially through
the Midheaven, the native's actions and destiny.

Houses, Signs, and Planets:

Interact in specified ways
with cosmology.

Demonstrate
the dynamic of cosmic influence on earthly life as determined by human action.

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